A self-professed follower of Ayn Rand (minus her atheism, as he’s since made clear), his comments were a dog whistle to those who believe in the Rand-Ryan mantra about “makers” and “takers,” and how in the end, one person’s position in life stems on their own abilities versus handouts from the government.

Do you hear that, minorities, women, and old people? In Paul Ryan and co.’s world, life is what you make out of it. So there.

It sounds nice in theory, but as Salon’s Joan Walsh points out, the government subsidized Paul Ryan’s education, and for all that chatter about the virtues of free enterprise, Ryan has spent much of his career working in government and profiting off musings about why it needs to be gutted.

Paul Ryan is a poser.

A poser who has now been tapped by an even bigger poser to help him run the country in to the ground. For example, let’s take a look at “The Ryan Budget.”

Back in March, Romney said in Chicago, “I’m very supportive of the Ryan budget plan.” And then later in Wisconsin, “I think it’d be marvelous if the Senate were to pick up Paul Ryan’s budget and adopt it and pass it along to the President.”

It will work in the way of invigorating conservatives, though it simultaneously provides Democrats the opportunity to wake the sleeping giant that is certain voting blocs – minorities, women, youth – who may have felt their vote wouldn’t matter much this time around.

If this Romney-Ryan ticket is true, Barack and Michelle are somewhere dancing offbeat to “Move Your Body” as we tweet.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter rightly argued in a statement:

By choosing Ryan as his running mate, Romney has made it abundantly clear that he will rubber stamp this extreme Republican plan that brings us back to the same failed economic policies of the Bush Administration and leaves the most vulnerable of our citizens to fend for themselves.

The more voters discover about what exactly Paul Ryan believes in, and thus, what Mitt Romney believes in too, the sooner they’ll find how problematic that vision is for them…and vote accordingly.